Dr. Angelo Milazzo (Host): Hello and welcome to Pediatric Voices, a conversation with the people who make up the healthcare team here at Duke Children's Hospital. I'm Dr. Angelo Milazzo. I'm a pediatric cardiologist and I'm a Professor of Pediatrics here at Duke Children's, and I'm one of the hosts of the show. I'm here to bring you insights about children's health from my expert friends and colleagues.

But today, I have a very special episode of the show. Instead of our usual conversation with medical experts and our usual discussion of the care of children, I'm bringing you a pair of guests with a very particular set of skills, so to speak, and a very different type of expertise. Today, I'm welcoming back to the program Dr. Marcelle Scheyer, who has been called the first lady of Duke Men's Basketball; and also KC Nelson, the Chairman of the National Leadership Council at Duke Children's Hospital. Both of these folks were kind enough to join my former co-host, Dr. Chung, last October, and it's a great pleasure for me to welcome them back to the show today.

Marcelle is a nurse practitioner and a graduate of the Duke University School of Nursing. She's worked in a variety of clinical areas, including critical care, as well as women's health care. Her husband, John Scheyer, is entering his third season as the Head Coach of Duke Men's Basketball. Marcelle and John have a long history with both Duke University and Duke Children's Hospital. KC's alter ego is the Chief Investment officer of Hamilton Point Investment Advisors. He's a graduate of Duke's Fuqua School of Business. And so, he also has a long legacy here with rich ties to the university community and Duke Children's. So without any further ado, welcome, Marcelle. Welcome, KC. It's a pleasure to have both of you here on the Pediatric Voices Podcast.

Marcelle Scheyer: Thank you for having us, Dr. Milazzo.

KC Nelson: Great being with you, Dr. Milazzo.

Host: So as I said, you were both on the show almost exactly one year ago, you spoke with Dr. Chung. The show has grown a lot since then. We have new listeners and new ones hopping on board. I hope each of you would be willing to reintroduce yourselves to our audience. So, Marcelle, why don't we begin with you?

Marcelle Scheyer: Yes. Hi, everybody. Thank you for having me again. It's been such a pleasure and honor to be involved in Duke Children's and really just trying to continue the tradition of our relationship of Duke Men's Basketball and our support of Duke Children's Hospital, and something we're very passionate about and excited to continue to grow and make a difference. So, thank you for having me.

Host: Well, thank you, of course, for joining us. KC, why don't you take a moment here to introduce yourself?

KC Nelson: Sure. Well, like Marcelle said, it's a pleasure to be back. My connection to Duke Children's started about 19 years ago. And much like Marcelle, I've really enjoyed getting to know the team at Duke Children's over the years and seeing how our impact has grown. And I really love connecting with people who are energized about children's health and making an impact at Duke Children's. And so, over the years, we've both been able to make, you know, a lot of good friendships with people in the community and put some programs in place that have really helped, I think, make a difference for the children at Duke. So, it's been great.

Host: You know, you both have a long track record of involvement with the health system with Duke Children's, Duke Children's Hospital, and our community. You, I'm sure, have other opportunities for philanthropy, other opportunities for volunteerism, and yet you've invested so much of your effort, your time, your focus on what's going on here in the care of children across Duke Health. I wonder if you could both share some thoughts about why this is so important to you and, you know, what that relationship has meant to you and your families and your friends.

Marcelle Scheyer: Yeah, I'll start. So, John's relationship with Duke Children started when he was a player at Duke. Coach K and his wife, Mrs. K, Mickie Krzyzewski, both were very passionate about supporting Duke Children's as they had three children and nine grandchildren, I believe it is, but did so much for Duke Children's and really found a unique way to bring the team and get them involved in hands-on experiences in helping children going through treatment at Duke Children's. And that really, you know, affected John and it sat with him and he carried that forward. He continued to be involved in helping with pediatric different things along the way. Always had a passion for helping children and always wanted to be a father himself. And now, more than 10 years down the line, we have a family and we have three young children. We feel so blessed to have had our children have care at Duke Children's for a few different things. We've had two children that have had surgeries at Duke Children's, and that kind of just built on our passion to help and feeling so blessed to have, what I believe, the most talented, passionate, incredible physicians, nurses, caregivers. And it takes a village, it takes a very strong team, so we really can relate to that. And the team that Duke Children's has built, and we love being a part of it. I think it's such a unique and important piece for our team, our players to get the experience, to give back, to make a difference in the community, to go and visit the children and really put things into perspective on their day to day. How lucky are they to be healthy and playing basketball and be a Duke student, and to see the impact that it makes on these children who are, you know, their realities are a lot different in their day in, day out. And also, their families to bring a little bit of joy, to have something to look forward to, to do together. And I know it definitely has allowed our players to grow and in many different ways. I think these are really formative years for them. And I know we've had players continue and go on their own to visit kids and make special relationships and continue that legacy moving forward and as they also are starting their own philanthropic endeavors and choices. So, it's been a really special thing.

Host: Well, it says a lot about the culture that you guys have created around the team, around the community that the team sits within, around the university community. To think that these young student athletes are already thinking about what they can do during their time as players and later on is pretty astounding. I think it speaks really highly of what you guys have built. So, that's pretty amazing. KC, how would you answer this question? What has this meant to you from a personal perspective? And why have you chosen this area of focus when you, I'm sure, have many other opportunities to work with other organizations?

KC Nelson: Well, for me, it started with a personal connection. Our first born child, 19 years ago, unfortunately sustained a heavy grade 3 hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage at birth. And so, he was initially given a pretty grim outlook for life. They thought he'd be facing pretty severe challenges in walking and speaking based on where the blood was in his brain. We're fortunate enough to get in to see a colleague of yours, Dr. Fuchs, when my child was three weeks old and six pounds, so quite, quite tiny. He was not thriving at that time due to the injury. And Dr. Fuchs, after having basically three weeks of just heartbreak and really bad test results, Dr. Fuchs took a look at him. He said, "Okay. Well, he needs some help. He has hydrocephalus. His brain is swelling. I think I can help him though. I'm going on vacation tomorrow. Could you get here real early and I can operate on him before I hop on the plane?"

So, you know, we didn't really have much time to think about the decision. You know, brain surgery on your three-week baby is a pretty intimidating prospect. But faced with, you know, what the potential realities of the situation were at the time, we said, you know, "Sure, we'll be here in the morning." And so, we were immediately just awestruck that this pediatric neurosurgeon, well-known pediatric neurosurgeon, said here, "I'll come in tomorrow morning before I go on my vacation and do this because your child needs it."

And so, after the surgery, Dr. Fuchs told us, "You know, babies' brains, there's just so much we don't know. Sometimes there's children that have a little bit of blood on the brain and have severe challenges, and sometimes there's some, like your son, whose brains are filled with blood and we have some pretty good outcomes. So, it's really tough to tell, but I've got a good feeling." And so, my son is 19 years old and he's at Vanderbilt University, had a perfectly normal childhood and fully participated in sports and did very well academically. And due to the miracle workers, Dr. Fuchs and his entire staff, the nurses, the PAs, you know, we had a wonderful outcome. And I'm happy to say he was part of the crowd carrying the field goal post to the Cumberland River this last weekend as they took down Alabama. So, it began as a very personal connection. And from there, you know, my wife and I just tried to help out any way we could. We were immediately struck. As a donor, you know, you want to give back to somebody who saves your child's life, but you also want to give your time and resources to a place where you feel like you're going to make a difference.

So at Duke Children's, I have been particularly impressed by the talent in the room, something that Marcelle said that rings very true to me is it takes a village. When we're, you know, organizing activities, you know, working on fundraising, trying to make a connection that might be helpful to the hospital in some way, you can't really do it alone. It takes some people to pitch in and help out in ways that, you know, you just can't head out and do it on your own. So, there's a number of talented people all around Duke Children's that are more than happy to pitch in and also to piggyback off of what Marcelle said, the passion. So whether it's on current students, whether it's from the basketball team, whether it's from the faculty, the staff, they have the passion. So if you tell them, "Hey, I'm working on this, and I could really use some help here and here to make this happen," they're more than happy to do it. So, that's fantastic to see as a donor.

And, you know, last, I think the science is just cutting edge and there are areas, certainly one that, you know, very well about how great Duke Children's is in saving lives and a difference for our kids, both Marcelle and I have spent some time at Duke Children's. And, you know, when you're there and you're working on a problem, you want the best people in the world to be working on it, and you want to know that they're giving it all they've got. And that's absolutely the feeling that we've gotten every step of the way for these last 19 years.

Host: Well, I love the specificity of both of your answers. And one advantage I have today that the audience doesn't have is I can see your faces, and I can see your expressions as you're saying these things. And it's easy to tell that this is coming from an important place for both of you. So, you know, again, it speaks a lot about that relationship and how central it is in your work.

And I also think it's important for the audience to understand that we can only do the things we do with the help of others. And when I say that, I mean that Duke Children's, like all academic institutions across the country, we rely on the help of, in some cases, the federal government for research support. In some cases, we rely on volunteers who donate time, but we also rely on the philanthropic efforts of our friends, of our colleagues. And we're so fortunate to be in a university community here where we're so physically close to the main campus of Duke University that we can have this great back and forth and this great relationship. So, what you guys are doing is so important from that respect.

And to that end, I want to dive into some of the specifics because you both have spearheaded some really amazing programs in the last few years. I have some that are top of mind for me, but I want to begin with the ones that for you are very important. So, feel free to take the floor here and tell us about some of the specific initiatives that you guys have put into play to help support the work of Duke Children's Hospital.

Marcelle Scheyer: I'll let KC go first. He has spearheaded some amazing, amazing things that we're continuing, and we're so excited this year. We have a lot of great things coming up. So, why don't you go and start, KC?

KC Nelson: Yeah, sure thing. So, you know, one of the first programs that we did that started raising, you know, some very good money and getting some very good exposure for Duke Children's is entering its fourth year. It's the Charity Stripe Challenge. And that came about actually, you know, one day we were watching a football game and saw the great tradition at the University of Iowa, where the fans at the end of the third quarter, turn around and wave to the kids that are at the children's hospital, that overlooked the football stadium.

And, you know, we thought, well, we've got the passion here for it, can we create something similar like that with all of these eyeballs on Duke basketball? So, we started the Charity Stripe Challenge where we'll have a celebrity, oftentimes it's a former Duke player. Sometimes it's, you know, another celebrity. Sometimes it's somebody in music and entertainment, someone that has a connection to the school come out and take a shot for charity at halftime. And we'll have donors that will serve as the host for those stars and make a donation to the children's hospital and get to meet, you know, our celebrity shooter. So, that's been a fantastic program. And entering its fourth year now, we're coming up on over half a million dollars that have been raised through that program. So, that's been outstanding.

This year, we're changing it around a little bit. We're still going to have our celebrity shooters and our hosts are still going to be able to make a donation and get to meet our celebrity shooters. But we're improving it, I would say, in that we're adding the Charity Stripe 1000 Challenge. So, what we're trying to do is get a thousand Blue Devil fans around the country pledge to be a Hoops Hero, and make a $25 donation to the Duke Children's Hospital. All proceeds are going to Duke Children's. And we hope by getting a thousand folks out there to make that $25 pledge, we're going to grow our network and grow the interest in this partnership between Duke Basketball and Duke Children's. So, that's something we're really excited about.

Another program that we launched a few years ago is our Annual Watch Party. That's going to be occurring on Duke 8th this year. It's the away game versus UNC each year. That's a ton of fun. You can buy tickets and, you know, watch the game with a couple hundred of your best new Duke friends cheering on the team as they play at UNC. All proceeds of that go to Duke Children's as well. We'll have some really neat items at auction, where the proceeds again will be going all to Duke Children's. So, you know, it might be from a Duke NBA player or a jersey, you know, tickets to DPAC, Hurricanes or Panthers games. We'll have all sorts of neat items up for auction. And it's just a really fun night with great programming. Every TV timeout, we've got something really neat going on. And it's an event for true Duke Hoops fans. The audio is up and loud. The screens are movie theater-like screens. And, yeah, you got a lot of excited fans in the room.

 So, if you're interested in participating in any of these programs as a donor or just want to learn more about it, please email us at dukekids@duke.edu, dukekids@duke.edu. So, those are two of the programs that I find every year to be a ton of fun. I'll let Marcelle chat a little bit about the charity game as well as some of the other programs that she's spearheaded.

Marcelle Scheyer: Great. Yes, we are very excited. And that Duke UNC Watch Party, this will be the third annual, is that correct? It's on March 8th. So, that seems like a really great time, especially when we beat UNC. So, we are so excited this year. We have the opportunity to do an exhibition game on October 27th verse another former Duke player coach named Bobby Hurley. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar. He is at Arizona State, and we get to have a Showdown Brotherhood Run Charity Game where all the proceeds of the game are going to go towards Duke Children's.

And just as I was saying before, Coach Bobby Hurley as well had the opportunity to be involved at Duke Children's in his time as a player here, and it was something that meant a lot to him as well. So, both Coach Hurley and John, they got together and got to choose a charity and decided to put it towards Duke Children's, which we are so excited. And it's going to be televised on ESPN on October 27th at 7:00 p.m. So, we're also going to be able to do some really awesome things during the game. We're going to bring all of our kid captains and children ambassadors for Duke Children's to the game. We are going to have opportunity to bring families of Children getting treatment at Duke Children's for an awesome night to come and help us cheer on our team. I think we're going to kick off our Charity Stripe Challenge for Hoops Heroes. We're also going to get to acknowledge doctors and nurses who play a part in this and what we're, you know, all here to do. So, that's really exciting.

KC Nelson: And for that, if I could interrupt real quick, if you're interested, we're reserving a couple of hundred tickets for patient families to that game. So if you're interested in buying tickets for a patient family, again, contact us at dukekids@duke.edu, dukekids@duke.edu. And we'd love to have you donate and buy some tickets for a patient family.

Marcelle Scheyer: Just this past weekend, we finished our third annual Dribble for Victory over Pediatric Cancer Event, which was a huge success. We had over 500 people show up to dribble around Duke's campus with our team, and we had over 20 of our oncology patients, pediatric patients participating as our honorary captains. It was a truly special morning at Duke, and we were able to raise over $130,000 that will go towards Duke Children's along with the Jimmy V Foundation and Pediatric Cancer Research. So, it was a huge success. We are so excited and are going to continue that tradition and hopefully grow it next year.

Host: So, the resume of things that you guys are doing is getting longer and more detailed and more expansive as this relationship grows. It's amazing to see. I'm really impressed with the number of events. And the detail with which you guys are approaching this. I mean, all of these things seem extraordinarily well thought out. They seem like they're really effectively put together. So, my question is, are you guys working with a team? Is it the two of you working independently? Do you have others that you're bringing into this work? And, you know, how exactly do you guys go from concept to execution?

KC Nelson: It's a team effort, no doubt about that. And Marcelle and I are just a small part of a very large and talented team at multiple levels at Duke Basketball, at Duke Children's. And we try to keep coordination and communication across all those channels pretty high so that we're all kind of rowing in sync, so to speak, to get the most bang for the buck. So, it's definitely a team effort and we do try to focus each event on trying to, you know, tap a new angle, so to speak, of either connecting with a new type of potential supporter of Duke Children's, and that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a donor. For your listeners out there, we have needs for advocates out there, just people that can raise our profile in the community. We always love to have donors. We have needs for connectors, people that can make linkages between what we're doing and other valuable connections they see out there in the world. So, there's a lot of ways to get involved and it doesn't have to be financial for your listeners out there.

I mean, as an example, we will occasionally get contacted by patient families over social media that see one of our posts about, you know, the groundbreaking work that you and your team are doing for the heart or Dr. Fuchs team is doing for the brain. Somewhere out there in the world, there might be a patient family that's afflicted with this rare disease that happens to see some groundbreaking work that's happening at Duke Children's, and they'll get in touch with Duke Children's and oftentimes seek advice, seek care at Duke Children's, make donations, all sorts of valuable outcomes for their child and for future children. Those can start right here with some of the work that we're doing. So yeah, there's a very talented team behind us. I'm sure Marcelle could call out a couple of folks involved, but Debbie Taylor at Duke Children's on the development side is very involved, as is Culver Scales, and all the way up to the top, Dr. Anne Reed is a giant supporter of everything that happens at Duke Children's, as well as this partnership between Duke Basketball and Duke Children's.

Marcelle Scheyer: Definitely, it's been such a wonderful partnership that we have continued and with the support of so many doctors and directors and everyone at Duke Children's for our team and, you know, reciprocate that, how we want to support everyone at Duke Children's. But yes, Dr. Anne Reid, Debbie Taylor has been incredible to work with. On our end, Michaela Ryan, our chief of staff has the biggest heart and has gone above and beyond in helping us really make these programs what it is.

And I'll continue on that note, our fans and our Cameron Crazies students have really made some of these programs what they are. Our first year as head coach, we were able to start a program called the Scheyer Family Kid Captain, which has gotten a lot of attention because of how, first of all, the children are so amazing, but the joy that it's brought to fans and families and children, but I owe a lot of thanks to our fans and Cameron Crazies because they truly just, you know, supported it so much and made it what it is and made it so special.

Our first child that we brought in as our kid captain, we got to honor them and bring them out on the court during a timeout, present them with a basketball, and kind of just tell a little bit about their journey, their story, what they are fighting. And our Cameron Crazies started chanting his name. And truly, it was a pretty pivotal moment in the game. I know KC has described this pretty well. But we were down, and we were able to introduce this kid, and just the whole building lit up, and people were standing up and cheering for him. And it really translated to our team and we ended up winning. I can't tell you the details, KC probably can. But it truly was a special moment and we have continued that and grown it. This past year, we were able to honor a really special little girl named Harper, who is local to Durham, who is also starting her own foundation to help more Duke Children's patients through an organization called Harper's Home, but she finished her treatment in February of this year actually, and was able to ring her final treatment bell on the center of Cameron Indoor, which was truly a remarkable moment and just, you know, uplifted. So many people were so proud of her and happy for her and her journey. So, it's been an honor to be able to host these children, to honor them, to celebrate them. And we are excited to bring in more kid captains this year.

KC Nelson: I don't know if you were able to see the highlights from last year. Maybe you were even at the game, Dr. Milazzo. But let's see, I went into MBA school in 2002 at Duke. So, I thought, 22 years of watching all the Duke games that last year when Harper rang the bell, that was easily like a top three moment in Cameron, in my mind. It was just remarkable.

And so, you think about all the people that are involved, most importantly, Harper going through the fight, but all the people involved that are making a moment like that happen, the doctors, the nurses, the staff, and the Scheyers and the Crazies, and just all the people, yeah, it's just magical.

Host: Well, I can't think of a better way to distill this conversation or to cap it off. I think that story is really powerful. I think it's just a perfect specific example of how what you're doing is impacting everyone from the undergraduates at Duke, the Cameron Crazies, to the members of the team, to obviously your coaching family and your coaching fraternity with Bobby Hurley coming back to kind of re enter into this work with you all, to some of the things that you're doing in these specific areas like pediatric cancer. It's all just, you know, example after example of your commitment. And I want to thank you again. As a healthcare provider here at Duke Children's, it's important for the audience to know that we cannot do all the things we do without this kind of support. Marcelle, KC, tremendous pleasure to have you on the show today. I anticipate this is going to be an annual event, so I look forward to talking with you guys again next October in those pre-season weeks. I hope you will continue to share with us the fantastic work that you are doing both individually and together as a team.

Marcelle Scheyer: Thank you so much, Dr. Milazzo. And I will look forward to next year speaking with you again and hopefully having many more things to report and celebrate and look forward to together, and thank you to everybody who supports us and what we're doing for Duke Children's and for Duke basketball, and we are excited for a great year ahead of us.

KC Nelson: Yes, likewise. It's an honor. Again, if anyone listening wants to get involved in any way, I'd encourage them to email dukekids@duke.edu, or follow us on Instagram, is another great spot. Facebook, we're out there. You know, be an advocate. Be a connector, be a donor, find a way to get involved. We'd love to have you join the party, and let's keep doing some great things, and let's go Duke!

Host: Wonderful. Thanks again to both of you. We'll have in our show notes today contact information for all the things that you mentioned. Again, we really appreciate the time you have both taken to spend with us and the audience today.

Pediatric Voices is brought to you by Duke Children's Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics at the Duke University Medical Center here in sunny Durham, North Carolina. Thanks to Courtney Sparrow, who keeps us on track and organizes our work. And special thanks to Dr. Anne Reed and the wonderful people at DoctorPodcasting. You can find our show, and please hit the subscribe button wherever you find your favorite podcasts. You can connect with us online at pediatrics.duke.edu/podcasts. You can also connect with us on our social media channels and at dukechildrens.org. We'd love to hear from you, so please leave a review at Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast application. Thanks again for being part of the show. We'll see you next time.